Prove that any parallelopided is a convex set.

affine-geometryaffine-varietiesconvex-geometryexamples-counterexamples

Definition

The parallelopided generated by a point $O\in\Bbb R^n$ and $k$ linearly independent vectors $\vec v_1,\dots,\vec v_k$ is the set $\mathcal P_O(\vec v_1,\dots,\vec v_k)$ defined through the condition
$$
\mathcal P_O(\vec v_1,\dots,\vec v_k):=\big\{P\in\Bbb R^n|\,\,\,\text{there exist}\,\alpha^1,\dots,\alpha^k\in[0,1]\,\text{such that}\,\,P=O+\alpha^i\vec v_i\big\}
$$

So clearly with respect this definition any parallelotope is homeomorphic to the unitary cube $[0,1]^k$ so that it is connected but unfortunately it is not possible to claim that it is convex since homeomorphisms do not preserve the convexity as here showed. So I ask if any parallelopided is a convex set. Could someone help me, please?

Best Answer

So first of all we remember that the product of convex sets is convex too (see here for details) and moreover we remember that any interval of the real line $\Bbb R$ is convex: so any rectangle is convex being product of convex sets and thus the unit cube $[0,1]^k$ is convex. Now any linear map and any translation between t.s.v. preserve the convexity since if $f:V\rightarrow W$ is a such map then $$ f\big(x+t(y-x)\big)=f(x)+t\big(f(y)-f(x)\big) $$ for any $x,y\in V$. So we conclude that any $k$-parallelopiped is convex because it is homeomorphic to the unit cube $[0,1]^k$ via the composition of a translation and a linear map.

Anyway it is possible (if it interest) to prove the statement via other argumentations I show to follow.

So if $x,y\in\mathcal P_O(\vec v_1,\dots\vec v_k)$ then there must exist $\xi^i,\eta^i\in[0,1]$ for $i=1,\dots,k$ such that $$ x=O+\xi^i\vec v_i\,\,\,\text{and}\,\,\,y=O+\eta^i\vec v_i $$ and thus we have to prove that $$ x+t\cdot(x-y)=\big(O+\xi^i\vec v_i\big)+t\cdot(\eta^i-\xi^i)\vec v_i\in\mathcal P_O(\vec v_1,\dots,\vec v_k) $$ for any $t\in[0,1]$. So observing that $$ \big(O+\xi^i\vec v_i\big)+t\cdot(\eta^i-\xi^i)\vec v_i=O+\big(\xi^i+t\cdot(\eta^i-\xi^i)\big)\vec v_i=O+\big((1-t)\cdot\xi^i+t\cdot\eta^i\big)\vec v_i $$ for any $t\in[0,1]$ we observe that $$ \begin{cases}0\le\xi^i,\eta^i\le1\\0\le t\le1\end{cases}\Rightarrow\begin{cases}0\le\xi^i,\eta^i\le1\\0\le t\le 1\\0\le1-t\le1\end{cases}\Rightarrow\\ \begin{cases}(1-t)\cdot\xi^i\ge0\\t\cdot\eta^i\ge0\\t\cdot\eta^i\le t\le1\\(1-t)\cdot\xi^i\le(1-t)\le1\end{cases}\Rightarrow0\le(1-t)\cdot\xi^i+t\cdot\eta^i\le(1-t)+t=1 $$ for any $i=1,\dots, k$ and this proves the statement.